Disposable Travel Toothbrush Cover

ABSTRACT

A disposable toothbrush cover system which includes a protective disposable cover ( 18 ) to be placed on top of a toothbrush ( 14 ) and clamped ( 12 ) onto a base ( 16 ) to protect the bristles of a toothbrush during travel. The base ( 16 ) will hold the disposable covers ( 18 ) for easy access. The clamp ( 12 ) can be easily opened and closed by squeezing the clamp handles ( 24 ). The disposable cover ( 18 ) will be intended for one time use, reducing the probability of contamination.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to a disposable toothbrush cover system which easily and securing encloses the bristle portion of a toothbrush for easy transportation during travel and also holds the disposable covers for easy access.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Description of Prior Art

When getting ready to go on vacation there is always the issue of packing a toothbrush. Most of the covers on the market are intended for repeat use and require consistent thorough cleaning. Even when cleaned there is still the potential of exposing the head of the toothbrush to bacteria.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,142 describes a disposable toothbrush cover intended for travel. This idea mentions using polyethylene or polypropylene sheets, which can be resealed. This material is relatively inexpensive but having the sealable functionality will add to manufacturing costs. The seal on these sheets is another concern, since that's the only thing holding the cover around the toothbrush head. It seems likely that these covers could partially or completely fall off during travel. These covers also have holes in them for ventilation, which could let harmful particles into the cover during travel.

There are many patents for toothbrush covers that are intended for travel U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,813 to Lorenzana et al. (1989); U.S. Pat. No. 4,880,020 to Schurgin (1989); U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,162 to Bridges (1973); U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,019 to Scott (1964); U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,968 to Simmons (1953); and U.S. Pat. No. 741,321 to Flower (1903), however all of these are examples of reusable covers that require consistent cleaning.

A general concern with the aforementioned containers is associated with hygiene. Some of the reusable containers might securely enclose the toothbrush head during travel, but if they weren't cleaned properly you could still be contaminating the bristles. The disposable toothbrush cover which requires the seal, has holes built into the design and could fall off during travel since nothing else is securing it to the brush. All of these issues could lead to contaminating your toothbrush during travel.

In summary, the past and present toothbrush covers known suffer from a number of disadvantages: (a) Most are intended for repeat use and require consistent thorough cleaning to help prevent contaminates. (b) There are various methods for how these covers are attached to the head of the toothbrush, but they don't all provide confidence that they will not partially or completely fall off during travel. (c) Even though some of these covers completely enclose the toothbrush head, others allow gaps or holes where contaminates can still enter. (d) While none of these covers require expensive materials to manufacture, they do have some features that will raise the overall cost of production.

OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES

Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are: (a) to provide an improved disposable toothbrush cover; (b) to provide a disposable cover that will reduce the potential for contamination, (c) to provide a disposable cover that will be inexpensive to produce, (d) to provide a disposable cover that will be securely attached to the head of the toothbrush so it will not fall off during transportation, (h) to provide a disposable cover which is easy to use and requires little to no instruction, (f) to provide some sort of clamping device to hold the disposable cover in place so it will not fall off during transportation.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing description and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of the preferred embodiment of a disposable toothbrush cover with the head of the toothbrush completely covered by the disposable cover and secured by the spring-loaded clamp.

FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of the preferred embodiment of a disposable toothbrush cover with the head of the toothbrush completely covered by the disposable cover and secured by the spring-loaded clamp.

FIG. 3 is a back view of the preferred embodiment of a disposable toothbrush cover with the head of the toothbrush completely covered by the disposable cover and secured by the spring-loaded clamp.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing the preferred embodiment of the lid of the disposable covers open to display how they will be contained inside of the base.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing the preferred embodiment of how the lid of the disposable cover container will open from the base so more covers can be placed inside when needed.

FIG. 6 is a front view showing the preferred embodiment of how the lid to access the disposable covers will open so a cover can be removed for use.

REFERENCE NUMERALS IN THE DRAWINGS

12 Clamp, 14 Toothbrush, 16 Base, 18 Disposable Cover, 20 Lid to container which holds disposable covers, 22 lid to access just Disposable covers, 24 Clamp handles, 26 Spring, 28 Lid ridge for securing lid to replace disposable covers, 30 Lid ridge for securing lid to get to the disposable covers, 32 Metal rod which holds clamp in place.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6

FIG. 1 Shows a preferred embodiment of the cover system with a disposable cover 18 placed over the toothbrush 14 and clamped 12 securely into place. The disposable cover 18 would most likely be plastic, similar to that used to make sandwich bags and would be approximately 2.5″ long. The preferred shape of the disposable covers 18 will be long and narrow similar to the shape of a finger on a plastic glove. The spring-loaded clamp would be similar to those used to hold long hair in a ponytail.

The base 16 would be most likely made out of durable hard plastic. The base 16 will be wider on the bottom FIG. 2 so there will be room for the disposable covers. The clamp would preferably be attached to the base by a metal rod 30 that goes through the parts of the clamp 12 and into the plastic base 16, to hold the clamp 12 in place.

The disposable covers 18 will be contained within the base 16 and they can be accessed by one of the two lids 20 and 22 FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6. The lid to the covers 22 will be used when a disposable cover 18 is needed. The lid to the container 20 that holds the disposable covers 18 will be used when the disposable covers 18 run out and need to be refilled. These lids will preferably open with a built-in hinge similar to that on the top of a plastic ketchup bottle. The lids will close by snapping into place with the ridges 28 and 30, which are on the base 16 and the lid to the container which holds disposable covers 20.

The disposable covers 18 would preferably be layered similarly to how tissues are layered, so they can be easily accessed after one has been pulled out for use. The disposable covers 18 would be refilled when needed and they would come layered on top of each other and ready to be placed into the base 16.

FIG. 3. Shows the back view and best shows how the clamp 12 will be attached to the base 16. There will be a hole in the base 16 to allow room for the clamp 12 to open when the clamp handles 24 are squeezed together to open the clamp 12.

OPERATION FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6

When a disposable cover 18 is needed, they can be accessed by opening the lid 22 to the disposable covers 18. The disposable cover 18 would then be placed over the toothbrush 14, then using the clamp 12 by squeezing the clamp handles 24 and opening the clamp 12 FIG. 2 you can secure the toothbrush 14 to the base 16 with the disposable cover 18 in place.

SUMMARY, RAMIFICATIONS, AND SCOPE

Although the description above contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. For example the base could be another shape. There could be a different way to clamp the disposable cover securely in place. The disposable covers can be made out of a different material. The lids to the disposable covers could close in a different way.

Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given. 

I claim:
 1. A disposable cover system to protect the bristles of a toothbrush during travel, comprising: a base which will have a clamp and contain disposable plastic covers to be placed on the bristle part of a toothbrush; Said disposable plastic covers can be removed from the said base and placed over the said bristle part of the toothbrush. The said disposable plastic cover can then be clamped into place and attached to the said base by the said clamp; Said clamp will be used to hold the said disposable cover in place during travel and the said clamp can also be used to release the said disposable cover once it's no longer needed. 